Penguins lose Kris Letang just hours before facing the Maple Leafs.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without one of their core players this evening, or rather without one more of their core players.

After starting the season without two of their big three, both Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and star forward Evgeni Malkin have yet to play a game this season, the Penguins have now lost the third member of what most would consider to be the three core pillars of this franchise in defenseman Kris Letang.

According to a report from National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the Penguins blue liner has been placed in the NHL's Covid protocol. As a result Letang will be unavailable for the Penguins this evening and, depending on why Letang has been flagged by the league's protocols, he could possibly be out even longer.

Update: Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has confirmed that Letang has been flagged as the result of a positive test, a situation that could keep him sidelined for a significant length of time. Of course we have seen cases of false positives in the past and Sullivan has confirmed that the Penguins are now going through the necessary steps to confirm or deny the result of the first positive test.

"He is not a confirmed positive. He has had a positive test. He is in the process of confirmatory tests, and that's part of the protocol."

The Penguins have been playing without some key pieces of their lineup to begin the regular season, but in spite of that have managed to go 2-0-2 to start the campaign and have collected 6 points in the process. With today's news however we now know that they have lost one half of their top defensive pairing and will have to play without Letang for at least one game.  That game will be played this evening when the Penguins will face the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

We can expect that the Penguins will provide additional updates in the coming days when they receive the results of the additional testing that Letang will no doubt undergo.